USC Says There’s No Catch to Streak-Ending Victory

Fight on, poor old SC! The Trojans have proved it’s possible to lose respect while gaining victory. This “elite” football institution’s celebration following the UCLA game shows just how far this program has slipped. Two bad teams, one bad game and USC celebrates as if it had just liberated Paris. If I were a player on either of those teams I would have run off the field as quickly as possible before somebody accused me of trying to impersonate a football player.

Congratulations, USC. The streak is over. Unfortunately, it seems, so is your “storied football tradition.”

RICH LANG

Manhattan Beach

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Let’s take a realistic look here. We have two 4-6 teams facing each other who may not even be that good. The game was about as poorly played as I have seen. False start what?

What really caught my attention though was the celebration afterward. Did USC win a national championship? Where are the days when USC would turn its nose to UCLA and say that this game was just another game? Notre Dame is what really mattered! This used to be the game that would have to save UCLA’s season. Well, what do we have now? USC beats a 4-6 team and then celebrates for an hour and a half with its fans. How times have changed.

BILL ROSS

Arcadia

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Forget the several unbelievably bad calls against the Trojans, two of which took away a 50-yard fumble recovery and made a great Trojan defensive play into a pass interference call. Forget the stats: (Total yards: USC 430, UCLA 249) and forget the five Bruin turnovers.

Forget that even without Kelly’s non-TD, it’s 10-7 USC at worst. Forget that it was 13-7 before the Trojans gave back the field goal and went for the TD. Forget that everyone else who saw the game at the Coliseum knows that the best team won.

Is this the UCLA Bruins talking? Nope, it’s the Sunday L.A. Times, which in our house goes by its true name: the Daily Bruin.

ROBERT SWANSON

Newport Beach

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Bill Dwyre’s reporting of the SC-UCLA game was dotted with cynicism about a controversial touchdown. I wonder what his reaction was when Notre Dame recovered its own fumble in the end zone and scored the winning touchdown to beat SC.

MORRIS ELKIND

La Crescenta

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Bill Dwyre, The Times’ sports editor from Notre Dame, continues to dazzle us with his editorial decisions and comment. USC finally snaps an insufferable streak against its cross-town rival, beating the Bruins, 17-7. But what does Mr. Dwyre treat us to in Sunday’s paper? A front-page photo of Kareem Kelly’s catch showing that one foot was indeed out of bounds. And then 19 inches of column space that Mr. Dwyre filled by focusing almost entirely on an official’s blown call, a call that proved to be inconsequential in a game decided by 10 points. And, finally, an odd “ironic historical footnote” recalling Erik Affholter’s catch against UCLA in 1987.

I would have no criticism of Mr. Dwyre had he demonstrated a dash of editorial consistency throughout the season by deciding to write about the occasions where USC was the victim of blown officiating. However, that has not been the case.

Leave it to Mr. Dwyre and The Times to find controversy where there is none and attempt to turn Kelly’s catch into The Catch.

CARLO PACIULLI

Arcadia

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Randy Harvey, thank you for your column. For the first time in nine years, I was looking forward to getting my paper on the Sunday after the USC-UCLA game and was dismayed at the coverage. With all of the UCLA victory scores across the top of the page, and with the picture selected for the front page (the inconsequential non-TD), the choice by your editor was to focus on the mediocre game and the depression of the Bruin seniors. You, however, chose to focus on the important reasons why USC won: the running game, a defense that finally played four quarters (turnovers don’t happen by themselves), and better play calling by Hue Jackson.

It seems that The Times didn’t want USC to savor a victory where its underachieving team finally realized some of the potential that never broke through this season. Football is a game, and the team that plays better than the other wins; and that’s exactly what happened Saturday. If only The Times would have reported that instead of focusing on the errors of officials, players’ hurt feelings and coaches.

BOB HASTY

Laguna Beach

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As a die-hard UCLA fan, I’m not sure which photo in Sunday’s sports section was more upsetting--the one capturing Kareem Kelly’s foot clearly out of bounds or the photo showing a dejected Freddie Mitchell with his handwritten tribute to injured Bruin “Kieth” Brown on his left glove.

NICK ROSE

Newport Beach

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Let the alibis begin. USC finally beats UCLA after eight straight losses and I know what the Westwoodies are going to say. You can probably read it in today’s letters elsewhere on this page.

1. A blown TD by the officials--without it, USC still wins, 10-7.

2. UCLA injuries.

3. Extreme penalties.

4. The Handicapping Scandal--whose fault was that?

But, where it all counts, in the record books, it will show USC 17, UCLA 7 without any asterisks.

GENE COFSKY

Tarzana

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As far as I’m concerned, Paul Hackett’s record this year is 1-0. I am looking forward to his next game next November.

JIM AMERIAN

Encino

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A longtime UCLA fan, I awoke on Sunday morning expecting to be depressed. Instead, I was cheered by the thought that next Nov. 18, the Bruins can begin another eight-game streak.

JACK LEENER

Palm Desert

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As a UCLA fan, I took great comfort in reading these comments from Trojan senior David Gibson following Saturday’s game: “We didn’t go to a Rose Bowl, we didn’t win a national championship, but we stopped the two big streaks and that’s a pretty good legacy.”

Quite a legacy. Obviously, the “mighty” Trojans don’t set their sights too high these days.

STEPHEN J. KAUFMAN

Los Angeles

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Bob Toledo, the master of the trick play, ran the ultimate trick play against the Trojans. In a meaningless game at the end of a throw-away season, he inserts a first-time-starting freshman quarterback and never-starting center to lose to USC. This trick play guarantees that Mike Garrett and USC will be saddled with Paul Hackett for at least three more years.

Way to go, Bob! Ending the streak this way will pay off big time in the long run.

CHUCK ACKERMAN

Camarillo

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The Trojans still stink, they just don’t stink quite as much as the Bruins.

HANK DARNELL

Newport Beach

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A crowd of 91,384 attended the USC-UCLA game. Where are all of those people from the NFL who keep telling us no one wants to go to a football game at the Coliseum?

IRVING ZEIGER

Los Angeles